End of an era
William Toplis had established a watermill at Cuckney for the spinning of wortsed in 1785. But Toplis' company expanded too quickly and tried to do too much. They experimented with machinery for wool combing while at the same time attempted to combine spinning and weaving of cotton and woollen goods. They struggled through the late 1790s and by 1805 faced virtual collapse. The majority of the remaining apprentices were passed on to other textile firms in the area. According to the register of apprentices only two out of 786 were taken on as adult workers over the whole twenty years. Parts of the mill survive, having been converted into a school in 1848 by the Duke of Portland.
This extract from the Mansfield Workhouse admission and discharge register shows that Joseph Simpson, who appears in the Cuckney register, was originally apprenticed to Mr Walker, a nailer, and must have subsequently been passed onto the Toplis mill (PR/23,333/1).
See the admission and discharge register in more detail here [PDF 1032KB] 
